Biotechnology Can Aid Developing Countries in Alleviating Poverty
In my line of work as a university grant researcher, I have seen a number of research projects involving efforts to develop alternative food sources for impoverished nations. That’s why I was interested in learning of this critical need in Asia, especially in the countries of Bangladesh, India, China, and Pakistan. The answer to this issue may be as simple as developing genetically modified foods though biotechnology (Biotechnology for Food Security and Poverty Alleviation, Checkbiotech, 9/8/05).
Biotechnology, broadly defined, involves techniques that use living organisms or part of the organisms to make or modify products to improve plants or animals or to develop microorganisms for a specific use. During the 1970s, scientists developed a new method for precisely making a recombination of some portions of deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA, the bio chemical material in all living cells that govern inherited characteristics and for transferring portions of DNA from one organism to another. This technique is known as DNA technology or biotechnology.
According to the article, science and technology have underpinned the economic and social gains in Asia over the past 30 years. Between 1970 and 1995, cereal production is Asia doubled and caloric availability increased 24 percent. Although the population of Asia has grown by one billion people, overall food production in the region has also increased, largely due in part to cultivation of high yielding varieties from plant breeding. In the next 25 years, according to the article’s author, the population of Asia is expected to increase from three billion to almost four and a half billion people, and therefore the need for food is predicted to increase by 40 percent from the present level of 650 million tons.
The author of the article states that fulfilling the need for more food will have to be achieved with less work, water, and available land. The author further states that biotechnology can contribute to this need if scientists can develop technologies to increase the quality and yields of food crops and the technologies are adopted by small farmers. With the current trend in population and food production in Asia, the author suggests there is likely to be a large gap between production and demand by 2025.
The need to provide food to developing countries is greater now more than ever. As populations increase in these countries, there is a shortage in available land as well as in available food to feed all the people. There has to be an efficient and safe way to help researchers, scientists, and farmers produce better foods to respond to these needs. Biotechnology is one of the best solutions. Used with other technologies, biotechnology and the foods that the technology can develop certainly serve as a powerful tool in the fight against poverty.
